Counsel: Ethics case against Rep. Waters will proceed

[Geee]

Washington Times:

An outside counsel hired by the House Ethics Committee to resolve allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in a 2-year-old conflict of interest case against Rep. Maxine Waters has concluded that the California Democrat’s due process rights have not been violated and the case against her will proceed.

Even though outside counsel Billy Martin found that several of Mrs. Waters‘ complaints had merit, he concluded that they either did not apply to the House Ethics Committee, which is not subject to the same constitutional protections that apply to the U.S. legal system, or did not bias the case against her.

“Outside counsel has concluded, and this committee has unanimously found, that none of the individual allegations raised, nor the totality of the circumstances of those claims amount to a deprivation of your due process rights,” Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, and Rep. John A. Yarmuth, Kentucky Democrat, said in a letter to Mrs. Waters dated June 6. Mr. Goodlatte and Mr. Yarmuth are acting Ethics Committee chairman and ranking GOP member, respectively.

The original Ethics Committee members involved in investigating and weighing the charges against Mrs. Waters earlier this year were forced to recuse themselves against any matter involving the Waters case. House leaders then appointed Mr. Goodlatte and Mr. Yarmuth and four others to vet the charges against Mrs. Waters, as well as allegations that the committee mishandled the case against her and violated her due process rights.

The committee now will move forward with an investigation into the merits of the case against Mrs. Waters, which focuses on whether she tried to steer federal bailout funds to a minority-owned bank in which her husband was a shareholder.

The two-year probe became mired in allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and partisan maneuvering, forcing the House Ethics Committee to delay Mrs. Waters‘ public trial in the fall of 2010 and hire a special prosecutor to sort it all out when more details leaked out last year.

Mrs. Waters has fought the charges aggressively and has pushed for the case to be resolved quickly. With Rep. Barney Frank, Massachusetts Democrat, retiring at the end of next year, Mrs. Waters is next in line to replace him as the ranking member on the powerful House Financial Services Committee.

In its letter to Mrs. Waters, the Ethics Committee conceded that at least one staffer on the panel probably broke several internal committee rules, including leaking documents to the press. During the investigation, the former staffer invoked the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when responding to questions regarding the leaked documents, the panel wrote.

[RandyM]

Likely guilty as sin but just as likely she will get off scott free. Being in Congress has amazing perks..... especially from its own Ethics Committees. [Ethics Committees in Congress.... is that an oxymoron?]